“Do you have any more patients due this month?” Ellie asked.
Audrey took a bite of curry to stifle another yawn. It was only April 9, so of course she still had patients due. “Not until later this month,” Audrey said. “Unless someone goes early, I should be free for the next two weeks, except this Thursday. Oh, and Tuesday I have my usual volunteer shift at the free clinic.” She liked to keep busy.
“Right,” Ellie said.
“Do you have something big planned for this week?” Audrey asked.
“I volunteered us to help set up tables for the church social tomorrow night.”
“Okay.”
“And we need to finish our movie marathon.”
“Agreed.”
Ellie said the next thing fast: “AndFreddywantstogorockclimbing.”
Audrey laughed. “Oh, Freddy again?”
If Ellie blushed, she’d be blushing now. Instead, she shot Audrey a withering gaze. “He wants us to go as a group next Saturday,” she said. “He probably would have asked you himself, but unless it’s a pregnant lady messaging you, you’re kind of a hard person to get ahold of.”
Audrey shrugged and decided not to tease Ellie further about Freddy. “I’ll talk to him at church tomorrow,” she said. “And we’ll figure out a route to climb.”
“Thank you,” Ellie replied. “I know he’ll appreciate it.”
Audrey yawned yet again. She’d been up for twenty-six straight hours. As tempting as it would be to sleep the whole day, she knew she had to limit her nap to four hours; otherwise, she’d flip her days and nights. She finished her food, put her dishes in the dishwasher, and retreated to her room.
Her bed felt ridiculously amazing as she lay down. Before she forgot, she plugged in her phone, then opened the calendar app to add rock climbing for next Saturday. She’d better take care of any texts or emails before she passed out, especially if they were from one of her patients. She opened her text messages and saw only one, from her mother, which she would ignore for now. No use opening that bag of crazy. Nothing in her email needed her immediate attention.
Then her phone chirped with a notification from the Mountain Collective app, an online forum for rock climbers, letting her know she’d had some responses to a comment she’d posted. Her stomach gave a little excited flip as she opened the app.
Audrey had learned about a climbing route called Craggletooth Rock two-and-a-half years ago from a friend. It was somewhere up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and her friend Shannon had wanted to climb it but had never been able to find the crag. A handful of times, different people had posted pictures on the Mountain Collective from their climbs. The story was always the same: they’d come upon the route by accident and had never been able to find it again.
Yesterday, another set of pictures had appeared from Craggletooth Rock, posted by screen name BeerBabes&Bouldering. She’d commented on his picture, Awesome pics! Can you tell me how to get there?
She read the replies to her comment. BeerBabes&Bouldering had left directions, but the thread continued with other users arguing about the location of Craggletooth Rock. No one seemed to agree on the exact coordinates or how to get there. Audrey didn’t have time to try all the different hiking routes suggested to find the crag. A comment on the thread from BelayingonofHands piqued her interest though. You’re all wrong, he’d written. I know exactly where it is. She’d seen posts from this guy over the last few years. She remembered him only because he showed up in both the Washington and Utah networks like she did, although they’d never talked to each other.
How do you know? another user had asked.
Because I set the course was BelayingonofHands’s reply.
Audrey sat up in bed, no longer feeling tired. She was finally going to learn how to find Craggletooth Rock.
She tapped on BelayingonofHands’s picture to pull up his profile. Like most climbers, his profile picture was of him scaling some impossible slab. She couldn’t make out any of his specific features. He was a tiny tableau against a massive rock. She clicked the icon to send him a private message. Will you tell me how to get to Craggletooth Rock? she typed with shaky fingers.
His response came instantly, which she didn’t expect.
No.
She sat up in bed, taken aback by the reply. Why not? she typed back.
BelayingonofHands: Because Craggletooth is for the pure in heart.
Audrey: And BeerBabes&Bouldering is pure in heart?
BelayingonofHands: I can’t help who finds it by accident.
Audrey: Okay. What do I need to do to prove I’m pure in heart?
Audrey watched the dots blink that indicated BelayingonofHands was typing a reply. Her mouth dried out.
BelayingonofHands: Await further instructions.
Audrey groaned aloud. This was the closest she’d ever come to locating the climb. Why did guys always want to play games? Wasn’t anyone straightforward and non-manipulative anymore? Audrey tried not to let her cynicism ruin this opportunity. She’d go along with it and see what he wanted. She had to try. She owed at least that much to Shannon.
Chapter 2
It had been so long since Ammon Parker had been to a church singles activity that he’d forgotten how truly awful they could be. Tonight’s had been a devotional followed by a dinner. The devotional speakers had been some author and his wife extolling the virtues of marriage and not so subtly suggesting everyone in the room was not trying hard enough to get married. Ammon, a twenty-nine-year-old man who hadn’t even gone on a date in the last two years, was guilty as charged.
Bleary-eyed, Ammon stood in the hallway as he waited for the food line to go down. He was hungry and exhausted and knew he couldn’t handle the small talk and the “Oh, you’re the new guy?” that would happen if he stood in line with people. He had wanted to take a nap before his seven p.m. shift started at the hospital, but Freddy had woken Ammon up at four thirty so they could go to the devotional together.
Ammon wandered over to the announcement bulletin board and pretended to be interested in the job postings and roommate-wanted fliers. If he were looking for an organ-playing workshop or wanted to be a youth camp counselor, boy, would he be in business.
He pulled out his phone and opened the Mountain Collective app. He thought about the woman who had contacted him wanting directions to Craggletooth Rock. He should probably just tell her instead of giving her the runaround, but the spot was almost sacred to him. It was one thing for someone to happen upon it, but to intentionally allow someone to climb the space felt different.
As a boy, Ammon and his grandfather would hike to Craggletooth Rock once a summer and spend the day climbing and talking. He’d told Ammon the reason the climb was so hard to find was because it was only for the pure in heart.